After some coordination with Scott Burns, we decided to both leave for Fry’s on Saturday the 25th, due to weather on Friday night. We had postponed one week already due to the weather. Ventura harbor has been hit with intensive red tide and the water there almost looked like egg drop soup. We left the harbor about 6:30am and had fairly rough conditions on the way out. The SUP fell overboard and we had to retrieve it in wave chop. We were unable to sail straight at Fry’s, but were able to get right up to about Pelican and then tack twice to arrive at Fry’s. Scott Burns and Dennis Johns were already there in Benchmark.
We anchored just behind Benchmark and had an early dinner. Both Bob and I had been up since 4:30, so after an early dinner, we took a nap. Soon we were awoken by Benchmark’s crew, we had swung behind them and their stern rode was very close to our bow rode, so we reset before dark.
The red tide was still quite active at Fry’s, so we decided against diving or going for scallops. Saturday night was a bit bumpy in our position but both our anchors held, albeit without much sleep. On Sunday morning, Benchmark left to return to SB, and the other Catalina 30 that was at the anchorage left as well, leaving us with the whole place to ourselves Sunday night.
We moved into Benchmark’s position nearer the beach and slept for almost 10 hours Sunday night as it was much calmer further in. We explored the beach, the ruins of the quarrying operations, and the forested valley.
Monday morning we left at 10:30 to return to Ventura. Initially the conditions were somewhat rough, with enough wind to drive us under sail at 5-6 knots. This only lasted about a ⅓ of the way, and we eventually turned on the motor to arrive in Ventura around 4:30. Ventura still had red tide with some of the algae growths forming to large mats near our slip. Takeaways are; always strap down the SUP, and always close the companionway hatch, so the crew doesn’t fall into it.